Smartphones Drive New Global Tech Cycle, but Is Demand Peaking? by Benjamin Carton, Joannes Mongardini, and Yiqun Li published by IMFBlog (2/2018).
“Over a decade of spectacular growth, demand for smartphones has created a new global tech cycle that last year produced a new smartphone for every fifth person on earth.
This has created a complex and evolving supply chain across Asia, changing the export and growth performance of several countries. While our recent analysis of Chinese smartphone exports suggests that the global market may be saturated, demand for other electronics continues to support rising semiconductor production in Asia.
Tech is the new trade
Smartphones have become a key metric of global trade. In 2016, global smartphone sales reached almost 1.5 billion units. Smartphones have become the main computing platform for many people around the world, supplanting personal computers. As the figure shows, demand for smartphones has surged while sales of PCs have declined…”
